


The Art of a One-Night Stand

by jamespotterthefirst



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Tooth-Rotting Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-17
Updated: 2021-03-17
Packaged: 2021-03-26 09:40:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,659
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/30103971
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jamespotterthefirst/pseuds/jamespotterthefirst
Summary: Lily Evans wants to throw all caution to the wind just sleep with handsome James Potter at a wedding
Relationships: James Potter & Lily Evans Potter, James Potter/Lily Evans Potter
Kudos: 27





	The Art of a One-Night Stand

**Author's Note:**

> This is old but I wanted it on AO3 too :)  
> Pardon the sudden onslaught of old fics I'm about to post!

“How do you do it?” Lily asked, her eyes fixed on the wedding guests on the dance floor, moving and twirling to the music. Her eyes fell on him once again, sitting with his best mate at a table directly across the dance floor. She felt her stomach swoop the way it had all evening.

The blonde finished what little remained of her drink before asking, “Do what, my dear?” Her voice was too casual for Lily’s liking. When the blonde failed to suppress a smirk, Lily threw a balled up paper towel at her, missing her by a mere inch.

“Don’t make me say it,” Lily begged, feeling heat rise from her shoulders to her neck and face. 

“I’ve no idea–” Marlene started quite innocently, but Lily groaned.

“How do you just sleep with someone at a party?” she asked, struggling to sound as dignified as she could.

Marlene laughed, shaking her head at her friend. “I _knew_ it,” she told her triumphantly. “I just knew you wanted to shag James Potter senseless.”

Out of sheer instinct, Lily glanced at his table again, half expecting him to have heard that. But the music and chatter of the party was far too loud to allow for any part of their conversation to carry to him. He was saying something to his mate and when their conversation seemed to lull, he stole a glance at her.

Lily felt her pulse at her throat.

Without hesitation, he grinned at her. Lily smiled back, praying that she did not look as ridiculous as she felt.

Marlene’s laughter was not unlike cackling.

“And apparently, he wants to shag you senseless too,” she observed.

Lily shot her a look that only succeeded in increasing her amusement. When at last, Marlene managed to sober up, she said, “To answer your delicate question–” Again, Lily glared, but the blonde went on. “The trick is to get him to take you home or something, then once there, you can ask him if wants to come in for tea.”

Lily rolled her eyes. “Yes, I know all that,” she said impatiently. “I’ve only seen you do it a thousand times.”

Marlene smirked yet again, adding a wink that made Lily wrinkle her nose slightly at her.

“What I meant,” Lily went on, “was how do you just… do it?” She finished this sentence quite unceremoniously, failing miserably to think of a way to say it without wishing she were dead.

Marlene opened her mouth, but before any words could leave her, Lily cut in hastily. “I know how that sounded and no, I am not asking for detailed instructions on how to ‘do it’,” she said tartly. “I meant, do you talk about anything to lead up to it? Do you do anything special to let him know you want to? Do you just snog him senseless and assume you both know what’s going to happen?”

“Ah,” said Marlene brightly. “Now we’re getting to the real questions.”

A new, much faster song began to play and it was received with loud cheers from the crowd, particularly from the bride and groom. When most of the excess noise had settled down, the blonde continued. “I think the last one, definitely,” she replied in what Lily thought was the most anticlimactic moment of her life.

Marlene must have guessed as much because she laughed again. “It’s pretty fantastic,” she explained. “You meet someone you like and you sleep with them. It’s good and straightforward.”

Lily glanced at him. He was laughing at something his friend was saying, his jaw becoming much more pronounced than it already was.

“Just go talk to him,” she encouraged. “Believe me, it happens more naturally than you think.”

Lily had the urge to look at him again, but she resisted. She could see him looking at her out of the corner of her eye, and the thought sent chills through her.

When Lily said nothing, Marlene rolled her eyes. “What are you afraid of? That he’s going to reject you? Believe me, he’s been gawking at you all evening.” The blonde glanced at his table, but Lily refused to do that same. “He was doing the same last night at the rehearsal dinner.”

“I’ve only really met him a few times before, though,” Lily said, more to herself. “He’s a good friend of Rebecca’s,” she added helplessly. “I only really met him when Ben started dating her.”

“You talked an awful lot during this whole wedding process, though,” she reminded her. “What did you two go on about anyway?”

Lily shrugged, “Food?”

Marlene raised her eyebrows.

“And other senseless stuff,” Lily added. “He’s charming–”

“–and crazy fit,” Marlene added for her.

“–but I don’t really feel like I know him,” Lily continued.

“That’s kind of the point of a one night stand,” the other quipped.

Lily paused, unsure of what to say next. The mere thought of initiating anything with him made her pulse accelerate, whether of unbridled nerves or excitement, she was not entirely sure yet. She had never been judgmental of anyone who spent a single night with someone, ready to forget them the following morning, but she had also never seen the appeal in it…. Until he offered her a lopsided smile during one of their conversations or laughed at her rubbish jokes. Though the thought of insinuating or doing anything provocative mortified her, she was convinced she had never felt the same type of electric attraction for anyone else.

Before Lily could dwell on that any longer, she felt a sharp pain on her shin as Marlene kicked her under the table. “He’s coming over,” she managed to say in a fierce whisper.

Lily had enough time to throw her a reproachful look, her leg throbbing in pain, before she looked up at him. He sent Marlene a quick greeting in the form of a nod, which she returned just as casually.

“Fancy a dance, Evans?” he asked, that same crooked smirk that drove her mad present on his already handsome face.

“Yeah,” she said, getting to her feet and avoiding meeting eyes with the blonde at all costs. She tried her best not to visualize the superior, smug grin on her best friend’s face at the moment.

Instead, she focused on James’s hand at the small of her back as they walked, burning through the very fabric of her dress. She felt her pulse quicken once again, wondering if he could feel it pounding through her skin where he touched her.

With another slanted smirk, he gently turned her to face him when they reached the dance floor, his hands falling to her waist as naturally as as rainfall. Her arms twisted around his neck, taking a moment to trace the faint freckles on his nose with her eyes, visible to her for the first time in the proximity they shared.

“You look nice,” he said as they moved to a particularly slow song.

She was determined not to miss a beat. “You, too,” she replied at once. 

He chuckled. “Yeah, I do,” he agreed.

“Modest,” she commented, though she smiled.

They moved in a pleasant sort of silence. As they passed the bride and groom, Rebecca, the bride, caught Lily’s eye and gave her a thumb’s up. She felt herself blush, wondering how obvious her attraction had been.

“You all right?” he asked, quick to notice the change in her expression.

“Fine,” she said dismissively but perhaps too quickly to be believable. “Just a bit tired,” she added for good measure.

He laughed at that, and the sound was magnetic. “Yeah,” he agreed. “What are you going to do with your life now that this whole wedding business is done with?”

“Probably sleep for days,” she said truthfully, inspiring more laughter from him. “And wishing to never hear the words ‘lace’ or ‘centerpieces’ again.”

More laughter. “It’s madness,” he said. “It’s very nice and everything but it’s just mad.”

She nodded fervently. “And you got to watch the madness from afar. I got to be a part of it.”

“And even be it at times,” he added.

Lily threw him a poor attempt at a glare, which was entirely ruined by the quivering corners of her mouth. This ignited his laughter once more.

“At least one good thing came out of this,” he said after a short pause.

Her heartbeat began to race again, not because of his words but because of the way he was looking at her. There was no need to ask him exactly what because she felt it, too. It became suddenly apparent just how close their bodies were from one another. It became fiercely evident just how much closer she wanted them to be.

And the way he continued to look at her… his hazel eyes moving from hers down to her lips, where they rested briefly.

They had stopped dancing altogether, and it struck her just how odd they must have looked, motionless in the middle of the dance floor.

Suddenly, everything Marlene said about it happening naturally made perfect sense.

______________________________________________________________

He was kissing her, lips moving hungrily over hers, all efforts of being neat or gentle forgotten with everything else they left behind at the reception. Lily was not sure how they managed to break away from the party, or what the ride to her flat was like, or even the brief trip up the stairs to her bedroom. All she knew was that he was kissing her fiercely as soon as her door shut closed behind them, his hands roaming her body fervently, desperate in their search for her skin under the fabric of her purple dress.

“Need help?” she teased against his lips.

He did not reply, busy as he was kissing her. Instead, his hands moved to her waist, and with one last gentle tug at her bottom lip with his teeth, he twisted her around. Lily yelped in surprise, the sound slowly giving way to a soft sigh as he swept her hair to one side and kissed her newly exposed neck.

“I think I can manage, Evans,” he breathed close to her ear, making her stomach tighten.

His hands moved to unzip her dress, successful in their task within seconds.The feeling of his hands following the descent of the fabric down her body drove her to the brink of madness. Her eyes fluttered closed as his fingers moved to roam the expanse of her stomach. His teeth, meanwhile, pulled on the strap of her bra, letting it go gently. Lily sighed again as it snapped against her skin.

“Not fair,” she moaned.

“What’s not fair?” he asked. He sounded slightly breathless and that mere sound made her crave him more. She wanted nothing more but to tease him, push him to verge, before finally giving in.

“You’re still fully clothed,” she protested, quite out of breath herself.

James chuckled against her neck. “That just means I’m doing my job better than you are,” he said huskily, his lip tracking a line of hot kisses down her shoulder. The feeling was pure bliss.

“I doubt that,” she managed to say before allowing a soft moan to escape her. He was pulling the strap of her bra off her shoulder with his teeth. Lily could feel his lips curl into a smile against her skin, evidently enjoying the effect he had on her.

“Prat,” she whispered.

And before he could offer any more witty remarks, she rolled her body against his hips, pushing herself from the door to apply more glorious pressure. She could feel him against the curve of her body, swiveling against the exposed skin her knickers allowed as she moved, wonderfully distinguishable through the fabric of his trousers.

“Fuck,” he grunted, his fingers digging at her hips. Brusquely, he swirled around to face him again, and it was her turn to offer him a crooked smile. It seemed to have a similar effect on him because his breath audibly hitched slightly.

“What?” she whispered.

“If you keep looking at me like that we won’t make it to your bed.”

“We can make it to my dressing table,” she offered innocently, as she fervently unbuttoned his shirt and discarded it next to her dress.

“I like the way you think, Evans,” he said against her neck, already walking her backwards towards the piece of furniture that was, thankfully, closer to them than her bed.

Her hands were already working on unbuttoning his trousers, and the simple gesture encouraged him. He lifted her slightly when they reached her dressing table, gently pushing her onto it and displacing perfume bottles and cosmetics.

Very deliberately, she pulled down the zipper of his trousers, watching his reaction the whole time. He looked down at her through half-closed eyes, his lips red from their frenzied kissing.

Unable to take her calculated progress with his zipper, he kissed her again as she finally pulled down his trousers. They fell to the floor and he paused their kissing only to step out of them, kicking his shoes off in the process.

The sight of his nearly naked body was better than she had imagined.

“Potter,” she whispered, her nails lightly grazing up the indents of his abdominal muscles. This seemed to have spurred something in him because, without saying a single word, he took her by the hips, positioning her long legs at either side of his own, pushed himself against her, the fabric of their underwear the only thing separating them now.

He grunted again as he moved, the moan she emitted prompting him to go faster. The dressing table was shaking almost uncontrollably as he moved.

There was a loud crash as one of her bottles of perfume crashed against the floor. James stopped his movements. “Oh, shit,” he murmured. “Sorry, Evans.”

Breathless, and slightly desperate to resume in their movements, she waved his apology aside impatiently. “Doesn’t matter,” she told him breathlessly, even though it was the most expensive perfume she had ever owned.

He opened his mouth to argue but she kissed him, pressing her hips against his again, encouraging him to resume their movements. He did and the second time around, it send waves of pleasure throughout her body, making her desperate to vanquish the last remaining garments.

Just as he was speeding up like she breathlessly urged him too, he grunted, “Fuck!”

“You like that?” she asked, eyes closed.

But he had stopped moving entirely, uttering instead a string of curses.

Lily opened her eyes, realizing at once that something was wrong. “Are you alright? What’s happened?”

“I stepped on the glass of your perfume bottle,” he grunted as he tried to peel the shards of glass buried on his skin and already stained with blood. “I think it cut– fuck, fuck, fuck.”

Lily hopped off the dressing table at once, careful not to step on the broken shards of glass herself. “Right,” she said in a competent manner, immediately snapping into her role. Gently, she helped him onto her bed. “I’m going to clean the wound and see if you need stitches, yeah? Lay down for me.” She propped up as many pillows and throws behind him as she could reach.

Moving swiftly, she retrieved a First Aid Kit from her bedside dresser.

“There’s a lot of blood,” James warned her as she began to studiously examine the cut at the base of his foot.

Lily rolled her eyes. “I’m used to that,” she replied and when he gave her a blank look, she added, “Being a nurse and all.”

“Brilliant,” he said with a grin, which was immediately followed by a wince of pain. “I didn’t know you were a nurse.”

Somehow, the comment made her stomach twist in shame. Lily became suddenly aware of just how undressed she was as she worked on cleaning the wound. She could feel her face brighten with color.

“Loads of things make sense now,” he continued through gritted teeth as she disinfected the cut. He was unaware that anything else he said only made her feel worse, the sinking feeling in her stomach drilling deeper and deeper.

He must have picked up on something because he did not add anything else. A long silence fell between them, much more uncomfortable than any moment they had shared.

The traffic noise outside her window, although distant, seemed less busier than on most nights. _It must be late_ , she thought. She did not register the time they left the party. Her bedside table clock had been broken for months and her cellphone was in her purse downstairs, which she had flung carelessly aside as they rushed to her bedroom.

Another unpleasant jolt of embarrassment.

“So, the good news is you won’t need stitches,” she informed him when she had finished cleaning all the blood. “But it is going to sting for a while when you walk.”

James let out a breath he had been holding in. “Fuck,” he muttered, letting his head fall helplessly against the mound of pillows she had created. “My coach is going to murder me.”

Despite herself, Lily threw him a curious look.

“My football coach,” he explained. “He’s not going to be happy that I messed up my foot so close to playoffs.”

Lily opened her mouth to ask what team he played for, but she stopped quite abruptly, feeling the sense of embarrassment accost her again. It was dawning on her, and on him too perhaps, that they knew so little about the other.

She said nothing as she carefully bandaged his foot, feeling utterly humiliated. If he hadn’t injured himself, she thought in disgrace, she would be doing something that was completely out of character or her.

“I’m all done,” she announced, quite needlessly for she had stopped bandaging his foot seconds ago. Before he could give her a reply, she stood from where she kneeled on the mattress, becoming increasingly more aware of her near-nakedness.

Without saying much else, she strode to where her dress lay forgotten. As quickly as she could, she slipped back into it, thinking there was no dignified way to accomplish the task. She didn’t bother to fix the straps or zip it up. All she cared about was that she was covered.

When she returned to her bed to sit on the edge opposite of James, she realized he had been watching her very quietly.

“What?” she asked him for he opened his mouth, but had closed it just as fast.

He paused for a moment, running his hand through his messy black hair. With another heavy breath, he said at last, “That wasn’t me.” He was propped up on his elbows and his eyes fell to his bandaged foot. Lily noticed his cheeks flushed slightly.

At her silence, he moved his eyes to hers. With a humorless laugh and with a small shake of his head, he amended, “It was me but it’s not how I would have liked to do things.”

Hearing the words elated her more than it should have. Lily felt her shoulders relax and the shame in the pit of her stomach subsided slightly.

“Me neither,” she admitted quietly.

James gave her a weak smile, the faint color still present on his cheeks. Even the betrayal of embarrassment on his features made her feel more at ease.

“It was brilliant,” he assured her quickly, his distress becoming more apparent as he spoke. It became obvious to her that he was worried their failure to culminate what promised to be euphoric for both of them would be a blow to her pride. Lily pressed her lips together, finding something irrevocably lovely about that.

“Yes,” she agreed adamantly. “It was good for me too.”

He grinned, his shoulders visibly relaxing. Once more, he let his head rest against the pillows. “We’re rubbish at this one night stand thing, aren’t we?”

Lily laughed, relishing in the familiar, cheerful air they were creating.

“Pathetic,” she agreed. “I don’t know how other people do it.”

His grin slowly faded and a bit more seriously, he said, “I do.” When she threw him an inquisitive look, he added, “They’re all right with the prospect of never seeing the other person again.”

The words hung there like pendants.

Lily felt her pulse hasten, throbbing loudly against her chest in a very similar way it had done so throughout the night as their eyes met.

James was looking at her that very same way, his eyes unwavering from hers. “I don’t think I’d ever be alright with that,” he said softly.

“Me neither,” she replied without thinking, yet knowing the words were undeniable.

Another silent exchange, before he grinned, inspiring laughter from her. She watched him relax further into the pillows, throwing his arms behind his head. Lily crossed her legs on the mattress, facing him. Very carefully, she spread the skirt of her dress over her legs.

“So, Nurse Evans,” he started, much casually. “Who has been your most memorable patient?”

Lily feigned being deep in thought. “Well,” she started thoughtfully, “there was this one bloke who broke the bottle of my favorite perfume and then cut himself with it.”

James laughed. “What an idiot,” he commented just as cheerfully.

“Yeah, he’s really fit, though,” she went on. “An a football player, I hear.”

“The best one in the country, in fact,” he added.

Lily laughed. As a warmth spread across her chest at the sight of the smile he was giving her, Marlene’s words from earlier that night echoed in her head:

_“It’s pretty fantastic. You meet someone you like and you sleep with them. It’s good and straightforward.”_

And as James set off explaining everything from the team he played for to his position on the field with an unparalleled passion in his eyes, Lily thought being there, listening and laughing with him, was much, much better.


End file.
